Romancing the Stone
by czarina-kathryn
Summary: Based on the movie. Lily has a map that leads to ‘El Corazon,’ whatever that is. Her best mate’s captors want the map. The evil Colombian policemen want the map. Lily wants to go home, but is instead stuck in the jungle with her unchivalrous badboy guide.
1. In Which Lily Goes to Columbia

It's not mine. It's all drawn from J.K. Rowling and 20th Century Fox.

**Romancing the Stone:**

**A Lily and James Tale Based on the Movie**

Chapter 1: In Which Lily Goes to Columbia

or

In Which Lily is Rescued by a Scoundrel

**ooo…ooo**

Lily Evans had just finished her latest book. She was a very professional and well-known author and was (in full knowledge of the aforementioned facts) sobbing her eyes out. She always did that (the sobbing thing) at the end of a book; romance just had a way of getting to her. For you see, Lily Evans was a romance novelist. Sure she'd done her years at Hogwarts learning magic, but her true calling had always been writing.

So here she was, seven years later, an internationally renowned novelist. Her novels even did well in the Muggle community, although they obviously considered them to be fantasy romances. Lily sniffled a bit as she wiped at her tears with her hand. Jesse, the hero of all of her novels, had just saved the day again. A Wizard's Seduction, the book she'd just finished, was really one of her best and Jesse was simply magnificent in it.

Lily pushed back from her desk and went in search of tissues only to find that there were absolutely none in her small flat. She scribbled herself a quick note about buying some more (and paper towels and toilet paper) and pinned it to her bulletin board, not noticing the five other notes carrying the exact same message. She was always like that while she was writing a book, completely oblivious.

Sighing, Lily decided it was time to celebrate. With a decisive air, she got out the can opener and put Romeo's food on a small china dish instead of in his bowl. Romeo was the spotted orange cat who shared the small flat with her and loved celebrating the end of novels (especially since his feedings while she was writing tended to be sporadic).

Lily poured herself a bit of whisky and kicked back on the couch, enjoying the feeling of a job well done. Romeo brushed around her socks and hoped onto her lap purring into the ratty flannel nightgown she'd been wearing for the past 3 days before heading to his dinner (she'd even put a garnish on top for the occasion), making Lily feel quite appreciated.

Lily spared a single wistful glance at one of the many enlarged cover arts handing on her wall of a man silhouetted against the horizon. He was Jesse, of course, her hero.

"Here's to you Jesse," Lily muttered before throwing back the whisky in a single gulp. It was silly, she decided, to be attached to man who didn't even exist.

**ooo…ooo**

Lily woke up to the sound of ringing and sleepily answered her phone.

"Hello?" No one responded.

"Hello?" She repeated. Then she heard the dial tone. Odd, very odd.

Getting up, Lily stretched and glanced at the clock. It read "Late" and was verging on "Very Late." Lily's eyes shot wide as she remembered her meeting with her publisher at the Leaky Cauldron today, about ten minutes ago, actually.

In a record fifteen minutes, Lily was bundled up in her winter gear with her hair in a knot on the top of her head and racing down the stairs, manuscript tucked under her arm. On the stairwell, she nearly ran over old Mrs. Patterson and out of obligation after that, she helped Mrs. Patterson the rest of the way up the stairs. Nobody above the age of 65 should be allowed to live on the 7th floor, Lily decided.

"Oh, dearie, I almost forgot, this came for you," Mrs. Patterson said, extracting a large envelope from her voluminous handbag. "The postman couldn't fit it in your slot, so I took it for you. "

"Thank you," Lily said, glancing it over. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw the Columbian stamps and Eduardo's handwriting.

"Is it a love letter?"

"Don't be silly, Mrs. Patterson," Lily said, shoving it into her purse.

"You'll find someone, don't you worry, love," Mrs. Patterson said with a patronizing pat on the cheek.

"Thank you, Mrs. Patterson," Lily called over her shoulder as she once again escaped down the stairs.

She slid into the Leaky Cauldron, a measly 45 minutes late, and found Gloria, her publisher, talking up a rather Ken-doll-ish looking man. Lily sidled over and Gloria immediately began trying to set Lily up with the plastic man. After far too many sickening winks and artful attempts at running away, Gloria relented and she and Lily found a booth by themselves.

"You _know_ I just want to see you happy dear. I worry about you spending all of your time with that cat and no human interaction."

"Gloria, I'm fine, trust me," Lily said, "I've been on my own pretty much my entire life. Seriously, go find some of my old Hogwarts classmates; they'll tell you they saw me maybe 5 times a year outside of class."

"You really are too reclusive, you know?"

"If I say yes, will you leave me alone about it?" Gloria rolled her eyes and changed the subject, "So how's that friend of yours, Marcy?"

"You mean, Marlene?"

"Yes, yes, her. Did they find her husband's body yet?"

"They still only have a few pieces," I told her. Poor Marlene. She's pretty much my only friend. I was even the maid of honor at her wedding. She and her husband, Eduardo, live in Columbia (well, Eduardo _lived_ there). Eduardo disappeared a few weeks ago and has been turning up in rather small bits since.

"Oh, it's such a pity," Gloria sympathized, clicking her nails on her glass.

"Yeah, it is, but she'll be fine; she always is." Marlene had that wonderful ability of being able to bounce back from anything. "It's weird, though, I got a package from Eduardo today. He must have sent it right before he …" Lily trailed off, not particularly wanting to say 'was murdered.'

"Wow, it really boggles the mind, no?"

"Yes, it does. Anyway, I've got the manuscript. Read it and weep. Merlin knows I always do," Lily said, shoving it across the table to Gloria.

"You really are amazing, dear."

"Thanks, Gloria, but I'm going to head home."

"No, come on, stay a little longer."

Lily shook her head, slid out of the booth, and, after reaching the outside, apparated to the front of her building, wanting to just collapse back in bed and recover the sleeping hours she'd lost to writing.

Lily was turning the key to her flat when it first struck her that something was out of place. As the door swung open, her ransacked apartment filled her eyes, and she figured out what was out of place … everything. Feeling very violated and slightly (well, perhaps majorly) like having a panic attack, she screamed as Romeo jumped down from on top of the kitchen shelves, meowing pitifully.

She clutched her chest and whispered, "Romeo, sweet Merlin, you almost scared me to death."

Then the phone rang and that really did her in, sending her stumbling to the floor. Dragging herself up, she snatched the phone off of the wall and snapped, "Yes?"

"Lily? Is that you?"

"Marlene," Lily said, recognizing the voice, " I really can't talk now." It was true. She needed to call the Aurors or the Bobbies or someone.

"Lils, listen to me; I'm in trouble. Big trouble!"

"Trouble?" Lily echoed feeling rather like she was brain dead.

"Lils, did Eduardo send you anything? Anything at all? A large envelope, perhaps?"

"Oh, yes, yes, he did," Lily said, pulling it out of her purse, which still hung limply from her shoulder.

"Does it have a map in it, Lils? A treasure map?"

Lily ripped it open and pulled out what was indeed a map. "Yes it is a map, it says El Corazon."

"Alright, good, great. Lily I need you to bring me that map here in Columbia."

"Columbia? Are you _insane_? I can't go to Columbia!" Lily wailed. _This_ was why she didn't have friends.

"Lily, this is a life or death situation, ok? Are you listening? I need you to bring it to the Hotel Cartagena in Cartagena. I have a number for you to call when you get there. Do you have a quill?"

"Yeah," Lily said, snatching a note about buying tissues off of the counter and on it wrote down the numbers are Marlene spoke them, 64 56 39. "But Marly, I can't come to Columbia. Not now."

"Lily, if you don't come they'll hurt me." Lily froze and a sob echoed down the line. "Lily, they'll Crucio me."

The line went dead and Lily stared at the phone appalled. Oh my Gods.

**ooo…ooo**

That evening found her apparating to the portkey station. This was crazy. She hated traveling and yet here she was, jumping halfway around the globe to go and save Marlene … with only a treasure map in hand. Oh, there was no way this could turn out well.

Luckily, Gloria had agreed to watch Romeo and deal with getting her flat back in working order. Thank goodness for small favors. Not that Gloria hadn't accused her of being 6 kinds of mentally unstable before she left, which had been rather bad for her self-esteem.

What felt like three days later, Lily stumbled into the Columbian portkey station, which apparently doubled as a Muggle airport, and suddenly wished that she'd said yes to the creepy man behind the counter who'd asked if she wanted to hire a translator. She couldn't understand any of the signs or anything being said. There were animals and people alike covering the floor and policemen in rather scary uniforms everywhere else.

Somehow, she managed to get outside and locate the buses. There were at least seven, all of which looked rundown and unsafe to ride in. Sighing, she lugged her suitcase to the nearest one.

"Does this bus go to Cartagena?" She yelled over the crowd.

The bus driver apparently didn't speak English or was just bent on ignoring her. Where was that translation book Gloria had given her? Lily searched for it in her purse, while a tall, dark-skinned man came up beside her.

"Cartagena?" He said.

Lily looked up in surprise. "Do you speak English?"

The man nodded.

"Wonderful! Do you know if this bus goes to Cartagena?"

"Cartagena," the man said with another nod. Lily sighed in relief. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Thank you so much!" Lily said with a heartfelt smile.

After some minor struggling and the surreptitious use of a levitating charm, Lily got her suitcase on top of the bus and settled herself into one of the rickety seats. Exhausted, she let the sway of the bus rock her to sleep.

She awoke with a start to find the bus still chugging along. Desperate for fresh air, Lily lowered her window and got the start of her life: they were in the middle of a huge (or more accurately GIGANTIC) jungle! That couldn't be right. Lily struggled out of her seat and maneuvered her way to the front of the bus.

"When will we get to Cartagena?" She asked, yelling, hoping that would make the poor bus driver understand her better. The driver turned to look at her in a puzzled way and as Lily desperately searched her mind for any Spanish she might know, the jeep sitting in the middle of the road right on their path caught her attention. Since they were clearly about to die Lily did the only sensible thing she could think of: she screamed like a pathetic little girl.

The driver slammed the brakes, but he was too late and they smashed, with quite a crunch, into the jeep, knocking it up on its back wheels and smashing the front of the bus in. Immediately everyone began yelling, filing off of the bus, and grabbing their belongings.

"Where are they going?" Lily asked in the pitiful hope someone would answer.

"They have decided to walk to the nearest village." Lily whipped around to see the same man who'd helped her at the station standing behind her.

"Oh, I suppose we should go too, then."

"No need, another bus will be along soon."

"Really?" Lily said, hoping against hope it was true. Walking was not her strong point and her Italian high heels probably weren't the best footwear for the job either.

The man nodded.

"But why aren't they waiting then?" Lily asked, gesturing after their fellow passengers disappearing down the road with the birdcages they'd stolen off of the Jeep that the bus had just destroyed.

"They do not know any better. They are peasants; they know nothing."

"Oh," Lily said, not at all sure she liked this man.

She located her suitcase amid the rubble and, setting it upright, sat down on top of it, feeling rather like crying, but not wanting to embarrass herself in front of the strange man. She looked back towards him again and found herself staring straight down a wand. Holy Shit! She leapt to her feet.

"You will not move, Ms. Evans."

Lily nodded wholeheartedly, not even caring how he knew her name. She was going to die.

"Now, Ms. Evans …" The man started, but he never got a chance to finish because at that exact moment, a swaggering figure topped the hill to the left of where they stood.

The vile and clearly evil man who was holding her hostage shot what Lily assumed was a stunning spell toward the man. She supposed it was because he didn't like interruptions or something. Amazingly, the man at the top of the hill whipped out a wand (who knew there were so many wizards in Columbia) and blocked the spell, firing back one of his own in the progress. To avoid the spell the vile man had to dive and roll away from her to take cover behind the jeep.

Lily figured she now had a few choices and she opted for diving straight under the bus, hoping to the Gods that neither of the men decided to blow the thing up. Lily covered her head as a curse rocked the bus above her. She was going to die. And then Marlene would die because Lily hadn't brought the map to her crazed captors. Oh gods, she was a failure!

Lily cringed as glass broke from the bus windows and then watched in surprise as the vile man raced down the road, running for his life as the man from the top of the hill stumbled into view (well, his legs did anyway) firing another curse at the vile man's heels. Lily wasn't entirely sure if she should get out from under the bus yet even if the vile man was gone. Perhaps she should just stay under here for a few minutes … or forever.

"Merlin, Vishnu, and Artemis!" The man from the hill cursed, kicking one of the broken cages that littered the road.

Lily tried to make herself as small as possible as he paced over in her direction, his wand hanging down by his side and looking rather threatening. Lily literally stopped breathing as he knelt down and peered at her lying on her stomach in the mud under the broken bus. She felt rather silly now. Perhaps it was his piercing hazel eyes or absolutely gorgeous jaw line, but he made her feel like she was 15 all over again, and that was not a good age to remember.

"Going to come out?" He asked with a flip of his head, drawing attention to his rather mesmerizing mess of black hair.

Lily nodded and scrambled out into the open and onto her feet. He spoke English at least, Lily thought, trying to stay positive. He was once again surveying the Jeep, which she assumed must have been his.

"Do you know where the nearest city is?" She asked meekly.

The man turned to her and laughed, "City? Miami maybe." Miami? Wasn't that in the U.S.?

"Do you know where I can find a phone?" She tried again.

The crinkles around his eyes deepened in amusement and he pointed down the road. "Try three days in that direction."

Lily blanched. She was going to die. The man turned back around and began fishing stuff out of his Jeep.

"Will there be another bus?"

The man laughed yet again and gestured with open arms at the empty jungle around them and said, "Welcome to rush hour, love," before turning back to his work. Lily took that to mean there would be no bus.

"How can I get to Cartagena from here?" She asked and mentally braced for another laugh.

Indeed it came and the man said, "Cartagena, that's straight in the other direction by the coast."

"But," Lily spluttered, "that man said that this was the bus to Cartagena!"

"Oh, the man who was holding a wand at your head?" Lily was about to retort when she realized he was right. Blast him. She watched as he slung a rucksack over his shoulders and slid his wand into a holster at his waist.

"Well, this has been charming, but I'm heading out before the rain starts." Lily looked at the sky; it did look like rain.

"Wait!" She cried, registering that he was indeed leaving her there. "You don't understand! I need to get to Cartagena! It's a matter of life and death! My friend needs me! I need to get there soon or at the very least I need to get to a telephone!" Lily pleaded.

The man turned around and eyed her. "But what's in it for me?" Lily felt rather affronted. He expected her to pay him. Honestly, he should be a gentleman and do the job for free. Nevertheless desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I'll give you 50 galleons." The man laughed again.

"100 galleons?" Lily suggested. He turned around and started walking again.

"200 galleons!" She yelled, feeling desperate. That stopped him and he slowly retraced his tracks back to her.

"I may not have a lot in this world, but I'm neither stupid nor cheap. My minimum price for taking a stranded woman to a telephone is 400 galleons." 400 galleons! He was insane, crazy, and mentally unstable. If only she didn't so desperately need to get to a phone. Or if only she had some idea of where in the world she was.

"Will you take 375 in travelers checks?"

"Gringotts?"

"Of course." What know of woman did he think she was?

The man grinned, looking fiendish and devastatingly handsome at the same time. "I think we have ourselves a deal."

Two hours later Lily was considering the merits of simply lying down and dying. That dratted man didn't even have the decency to carry her suitcase, making her lug it along instead. Her arms were sore, she was covered in mud, and, due to the aforementioned rain, was soaked to the bone and feeling vaguely like a drowned fish. The man stopped, pausing at a curve in the road next to a drop off into the jungle. Lily pulled to stop beside him, hoping this was a break of some sort.

"Do you have any valuables in that suitcase?" The man asked.

"No … I mean yes, my clothes are in it," Lily said, contemplating sitting down on the thing for the duration of this blessed break.

"Any money, jewelry, walking shoes?" Lily shook her head, wondering why he cared. Suddenly he bent down and picked up her suitcase. Well, well, Lily thought, I guess he's not so bad after all if he'll carry my case for me.

Then with no ceremony or warning he chucked her suitcase off of the cliff they were standing on and watched lazily as it smashed into a tree and then continued its decent into the irretrievable. Lily's mouth opened and closed like a drunken fish (which was progress from a dead one) unable to find any words.

"Well now we'll make up for some time," the insufferable man said, like he'd just done everyone a huge favor.

"Why you bas …" Lily never got a chance to finish her word or sentence as the ground (well, apparently it was unstable mud) dropped out from under her and she found herself riding down a mudslide, screaming like a banshee.

**ooo…ooo**

Thank you very much for reading! If you haven't recently fallen off of a cliff and have extra time lying about, I love reviews. This story will be about 5 chapters long, so it's a short story if you will. And for any people who've seen the movie, I do change it up a bit, so don't be offended!

For any return readers from Kissing the Enemy, once again this is not the story I promised at the end of that fic. I should stop being so easily distracted, but I swear I'll post that one after this fic.


	2. In Which Lily is a Trail Blazer

It's not mine. It's all from J.K. Rowling and 20th Century Fox.

Chapter 2: In Which Lily is a Trail Blazer

or

In Which Lily Camps Out and Goes Vegetarian

Lily's last predicament:

"Why you bas …" Lily never got a chance to finish her word or sentence as the ground (well, apparently it was unstable mud) dropped out from under her and she found herself riding down a mudslide, screaming like a banshee.

**ooo…ooo**

Lily's unfortunate bum hit bump after bump in the rather unwieldy ground. She was tumbled head-over-heels by the turns on the mudslide, whipped in the face by the overhanging branches, and soaked through and through by the mud. Altogether she felt bruised, battered and thoroughly beaten by the time she flew off of a slight rise, through the air, and landed in a (slightly cleaner (than the mudslide at least)) mud pond.

Taking deep breaths and trying to remember that there was a civilized world, Lily glanced up in time to see the git who'd destroyed her suitcase sliding headfirst off of the mudslide and right at her. Lily didn't even have time to get out a scream before he'd knocked her flat into the pond and underwater, his weight pressing her down beneath the waterline. I'm going to die, Lily thought fuzzily, desperately trying not to breathe in water, before the man yanked her up by her arms and into a sitting position, coincidentally enough in his lap. He was laughing, surprise, surprise.

"Woo whee!" He cried to the sky, "That was fun, let's do it again, eh?" He looked at Lily and she did a fair imitation of being a dead fish.

He laughed again and said, "Lady, I like you. I gods honest like you. What's your name anyway?" He was asking her this _now_, while she's sitting in his lap? Yeah, great timing.

"Lily, Lily Evans," she yelled hoarsely over the gushing of the falling mud/water, answering in spite of herself.

"Pleased to meet you!" He yelled back, and grabbed her hand, shaking it vigorously with a huge grin on his face.

Somehow he managed to drag them both out of their pond and down to a log, a wet log, but in Lily's opinion it was far and away better than the ground. Lily pried her high heels off of her throbbing feet and set them beside her, gazing mournfully at their stained fabric. Not that the rest of her looked any better, though. Her jacket was literally in shreds and she was missing a button.

Checking under her feet for the button she didn't see it. After much inner debate, she dragged her sore self off of the log and bent over to look behind it for the button. That's how her mud-buddy found her when he came back from washing up at a nearby stream, bent over the log.

"Are you sick?" He asked, having the decency to sound a tad worried about her well being. Sick in the mind she absolutely was, but not physically.

She pulled herself back to sitting on the long and said, "No, I was just looking for my button." He eyed her skeptically and she self-consciously tugged on her coat sleeve. It gave a rather pathetic groan and ripped straight off at the shoulder. Oh well, she thought, it was an old coat anyway.

The man laughed and she began wondering if there was anything he wouldn't laugh about. As she began the process of extricating herself from the remains of her coat, the man came over and grabbed her shoes. She raised an eyebrow questioningly at him, wondering what it was he was up to. He took out his wand and with a cleverly placed severing spell, chopped the heels right off of her shoes. Lily once again resorted to imitating a surprised fish.

"Is nothing I own sacred to you?" She demanded, feeling completely unloved.

The shoe mutilator eyed her, "Well, your 375 galleons is about it, I'd say." Lily straightened her back and glared imperiously at him as he dropped the shoes now sans heels back next to her.

"Those were Italian," she informed in a slightly huffy manner.

The man just smirked and chuckled. "Now they're practical."

Lily frowned at them, unwilling to admit he might be right. She bent down to put them on and by doing so managed to save her life as a Killing curse hit the tree where her head had been, sending splinters flying in all directions. On instinct, she jerked back up, gazing in terror at where the curse had come from.

Seconds before the next curse hit her, the shoe butcher proved himself a decent fellow by knocking her flat on the ground and pinning her with his body. The pinning part was actually not decent (although he did have a very nice body), but the saving her life part was. Scrambling to his feet, he dragged her along and braced them up behind an embankment.

"What the bloody hell!" He yelled, clearly feeling just as offended by this murder thing as she was. Several more curses hit the embankment and the trees behind them. Lily was quite convinced they were both going to die this time. The temporarily decent fellow tapped his eyes with his wand and magnified the top of the hill.

"Police? I was throwing curses at a policeman?"

"Police? What?" Lily repeated. The man directing the curse throwing at the top of the hill was definitely the fellow who'd been up to the funny business on the bus. He was a policeman? That didn't make any sense. Why would a policeman be trying to kill her? Then it hit her, the map. Oh, Marlene was so going to hear about this when Lily finally found her.

"Shit," James muttered, leaning back against the embankment as another curse exploded dirt over their heads. "Who the hell are you Lily Evans?"

"I'm a romance novelist," Lily answered on reflex.

"Police do not try to kill romance novelists!" The man bellowed, gesturing at the top of the hill with his wand. "When you said this was a life or death matter, I thought you were donating a kidney to your friend or something!"

Lily couldn't think of anything to say, so she just widened her eyes and fruitlessly wished she'd made a will.

"You're more trouble than you're worth!" James swore, slinging his bag over his shoulder and running for it. Lily leapt up and tried to stay close behind.

"Wait," she cried, her short legs and newly 'fixed' shoes making it hard for her to keep up.

"No way, lady! I'm cutting loose! The deals off!"

"Wait!" She cried again, trying to pick up her pace, figuring he couldn't leave her if she was right next to him.

"It's over, no more!" He cried over his shoulder as he headed into denser brush, blasting his way through with his wand. Lily stayed right on his back.

"Where are we going?" She asked, after it became apparent that he was not in fact going to leave her - thank Merlin for that.

"We're on a trail."

"A trail?" Lily asked dubiously eyeing the decimated brush behind them.

"I think," the man muttered, turning back to her slightly to look at her. He thinks? Great, just great, Lily thought wryly.

"Whoa," the now justifiably unsure man cried, grabbing at the brush on either side of him. Lily grabbed onto him, taking only a tiny itsy bitsy second to admire his fine arm muscles, as they both stared down the gapping gorge to the river maybe 50 meters below them.

"You're a bad luck charm, lady!" Lily was starting to agree. She looked to the right, nothing, then left. And was that a bridge?

"What about the bridge?" She cried, feeling panic grabbing hold of her full force.

"That's not a bridge, lady, that's a bloody pre-Columbian arch!" It did look a mite unstable, Lily supposed.

"Ok, we'll set up here and hold them off. We might just make it without dying. Maybe. Are you taking notes, Evans? You're about to witness some really heroic action. I could be in your next novel."

Of course, Lily wasn't listening to him. She was still eyeing the bridge and debating with herself whether she should stay here and die or try to get away and perhaps die, but also perhaps save herself and Marlene. She took a step onto the bridge and the board sagged warningly. She was going to die.

She grabbed onto a vine and clutched it desperately as she took another shaky step. This board held, so she grabbed a vine a little further along. The man was still muttering himself into the background about how he should have been a Healer like his mother wanted. Lily carefully felt along the next board with her foot and before hesitantly putting her weight on it. She slipped right through the board and would have fallen to a rather sad and bloody death if not for her hold on the vine, which nicely enough swung free and delivered her shaking, shivering mass of flesh directly to the other side of the gorge.

She dropped the vine and looked back, feeling slightly guilty about leaving her rescuer, who was staring at her open mouthed, but shrugged it off in favor of collapsing a few feet back behind the foliage and pulling the sweet sherry bottle she'd brought along out of her purse. She could hear shouts on the other side of the gorge, but couldn't find any energy to do anything except try to get the darn cap off of the sherry bottle. She'd taken her first swig when the man she'd left on the other side of the gorge (muttering about seeing naked women as a Healer) stumbled out of the surrounding forest looking like he'd run into a brick wall (or perhaps a gorge wall).

"What are you doing? Drinking? Give me that," he cried and snatched the bottle from the hand and downed the rest herself.

"That was mine!" She wailed, feeling like she'd just lost her last friend.

The man might have been planning on responding, but he was cut off by curses spattering the brush around them. Apparently their foes weren't following across the suicide route, but weren't averse to destroying innocent wildlife. Lily scrambled to her feet and raced after the sherry thief further into the jungle.

As they walked the charming monsoon-like rain started up again and kept on going for at least two hours before the man stopped blasting through the foliage.

"Why are we stopped?" She asked, her first words in all that time.

He looked at her tiredly and gestured for her to step around him. "Be my guest," he whispered hoarsely, obviously feeling the strain of all his trail blazing.

Lily hesitantly pulled out her wand and carefully blasted a few branches out of the way. She was just getting into it, although they were still obviously moving much slower than when the bush master had been in charge of the whacking, when she cut a side branch and found herself staring straight into the empty eye sockets of a rotting skeleton.

Lily screamed at the top of her lungs out of pure surprise and terror. She had not signed on for a haunted house trip. She stumbled backwards and the man came racing up, grabbing her around the waist and pushing her behind him, while drawing his wand. She desperately scrabbled for something living and real to hold onto and, of course, met with the man's shoulders. She latched onto them and he wrapped his arms around her in a loose hug after seeing what had scared her wasn't actually alive and, thus not an immediate threat. He let go of her after a few seconds and moved toward the plane.

"Wow, check this out!" He said, clearly taking delight in what Lily could now see was a plane crash. The skeleton she'd seen was the pilot.

"Come on," he said, gesturing her forward, "I bet we can camp out the rain in the hold."

Lily privately thought that he might have had a decent idea. Except for the fact they'd be rooming with a skeleton. She stepped carefully over to him and they rounded to the back of the plane, which had the tail ripped off and he gave her a hand up into the hold where Lily was confronted with a sickeningly familiar smell. She eyed the bags littering the floor, trying to place the smell.

"What is this?" She asked.

"This? This is about five to life in Britain and a couple centuries down here."

"Oh, marijuana," Lily said, feeling silly for not catching it.

"Oh, you smoke it?" The man said with a sinful smirk that really ought not be allowed.

"I did go to Hogwarts," Lily said defensively. Hello, she may have been a recluse, but she did get out occasionally.

He looked surprised. "Hogwarts? That's where I went."

"Really? I don't remember you?"

He smiled. "You were probably still teething at that point." Lily rolled her eyes. He wasn't that old.

"What's your name?" Lily asked, thinking that she might be able to place that if not the face.

"Oh, you're interested now? You weren't before."

Lily narrowed her eyes a bit as she sat down amid the bags of weed and muttered resentfully, "Well all that matters is that I am now."

He walked past her to the cockpit, not answering her question and came back with a bag that must have been the late pilot's. He sat down beside her, while she crossed her arms and looked at him trying to project the fact she was annoyed. He pulled a giant bottle of rum out of the bag and looked quite pleased.

"Merlin, I love flyboys," he crowed, twisting the top off and taking a swig.

He looked at her dubiously and then offered it to her as well. Not one to chicken out, Lily took a swig just to prove she could. She immediately regretted it, but that's life. Live and regret.

"So what's your name?" She asked again.

He smirked again and pretended to tip an invisible hat at her as he said, "James T. Potter."

Oh, that rang a bell; a bell that said, 7th year god (of course, she'd been a 4th year at the time).

"Mr. Potter, I do remember you. Head Boy, right? But you sure are a long way from England now."

"Don't I know it," he said, shaking his head and getting up.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked, worried that he might leave her alone in the plane with the creepy skeleton and the marijuana.

"I'm going to make us a fire." Oh, that made sense; it was a bit chilly with all of the rain. James didn't leave the plane, though. He just grabbed some of the marijuana. Lily stared with wide eyes as he proceeded to light a fire – a bloody FIRE – with marijuana.

"Now this is the kind of campfire I'm talking about," James said, leaning back next to her and taking deep breaths of the smoke. This is going to be a long night, Lily thought and proceeded to take a very long drink of the rum.

"So are you going to tell me about this friend of yours?"

"I already told you about her."

"You said life or death, like it was her problem. I think it's safe to say it's now our problem as well, so you should tell me."

"Umm …. Well you see, her husband died and I've come down to comfort her." She figured that was semi-plausible. James didn't seem to agree.

"If you don't level with me, I won't feed you," he said, grinning since Lily's stomach chose that moment to growl.

"Her husband was murdered, ok? Some people have taken her hostage and I'm trading a map with them for her safe release." What? She was hungry, besides who would he tell? The skeleton?

"What's it a map of?"

"I don't know. It just says el Corazon on it," Lily said, pulling it out of her purse and showing it to James. After all, he was probably trustworthy, right? I mean, she knew him from school and all.

"El Corazon … the heart," James mused out loud. "According to this el Corazon is in the Cordoba province."

"So?"

"That's where we are."

"That doesn't matter. This map is all that matters. This map is Marly's life!" Lily cried, distraught.

"No, what's at the end of the map is your friend's life. El Corazon, whatever it is, that's something to bargain with."

"Bargain with! Bargain with! You … you disgusting pig. I knew this would happen. I just knew it from the first moment I set eyes on you!" Lily yelled, appalled that he'd put so little value on poor Marlene's life.

"You mean when I was saving your life?" Ok, so perhaps it was the second moment.

"You have no finesse! All you care about is yourself! A real man doesn't have to draw attention to his actions … you're a mondo dismo!" Ha, she had him there.

"A what?"

"A man who takes money from stranded women. A real man is trustworthy and loyal and noble and would you please do me the courtesy of _looking_ at me while I'm talking. If you had any sort of manners … AHHHHHHHH!" Lily cut off in a scream as James suddenly dove toward her with his wand out. She was going to die. He was a murderer! A murderer!

"Vipera Diffindo!' He yelled.

An odd spell for such a time, or so Lily thought until she turned to where the spell had been aimed. There was a huge snake, nestled right by her ear! Luckily James had just cut its head off, but still. She mentally apologized for saying James hadn't been paying attention when he'd actually been dealing with the snake.

"Is it poisonous?" Lily asked hesitantly, not really knowing if she wanted to know, as James pulled it past her to look at it.

"Yeah, but it's also tasty!" James said, his eyes lighting up in a grin. Lily hoped that wasn't the food he'd promised her. She was seriously considering becoming a vegetarian. James' eyes narrowed in thought as he strung the snake up on some sort of stick that made the whole thing sort of resemble a cookout.

After he had it roasting, he turned to her and said, "So they know you're bringing them this map?"

"Yes," Lily said, surprised by his out of the blue question.

"Well then they can't be the ones trying to kill us because what would be the point if you're trying to do what they asked?" Oh shit, she hadn't thought of that and James was right, they couldn't be the same people.

"So who are they?" Lily wailed.

James shrugged and offered her back the rum, which he'd appropriated. Soon Lily was completely out of it in the worst sort of way and was displaying it by asking rather intrusive questions that James was gamely answering.

"So why are you in Columbia?"

"I came here to get away, I suppose," James answered, popping a piece of snake into his mouth like it was completely normal. Lily had adamantly refused the snake and instead been forced to subsist on olives.

"From what?"

"England."

"Obviously. What in England?"

"I lost my job, so I just hired onto a coffee boat and came down here. It was something to do."

"Why'd you lose your job? You became an Auror didn't you?"

"Yes, I was an Auror. And I lost my job due to something I liked to call having a good time and they liked to call insubordination," He grinned self-deprecatingly, making Lily wonder in her inebriated state if he was telling the truth.

"I never heard about you getting fired."

"Why would you have?"

"Because my dorm mates talked about you and that friend of yours all of the time."

"Sirius, I suppose. He'd like to hear he had such a devoted following in the lower years."

"You didn't answer my question," Lily reminded him. She wasn't going to let him get out of answering.

"Look, I quit, ok?"

"Why'd you quit?"

"No reason, I just couldn't take it anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because I couldn't!"

"That's not an answer."

James eyed her, "One of the men on my team was killed. It was my fault. They should have fired me, but didn't. So I did the job for them."

Lily cocked her head, something wasn't right with that. "Well, was it your fault?"

"He was under my command."

"I guess that's a no, but you're blaming yourself anyway."

"Look, drop it." Lily sighed, and figured that was probably good advice. She didn't want to get on the wrong side of an ex-Auror.

"So you're in the bird business now?"

"Well, I was. Then my 15,000 galleons of birds flew south for the winter. No thanks to you Ms. Jinx."

"That wasn't my fault." Well, it only slightly was her fault. "So what do you want out of life?"

"I don't know. I've been saving for a boat. I figure I could sail the world, take in the sights."

"By yourself? Sounds lonely James T. Potter."

He eyed her and didn't answer.

"What does the 'T' stand for?" He shot a bone-melting grin meant to bring a woman to her knees (luckily Lily was sitting down) at her.

"Trustworthy." Trustworthy her ass.

"One hell of a morning turned into one bitch of a day, didn't it?" James asked and that was the last thing Lily heard before everything blurred into the dark world of unconsciousness.

**ooo…ooo**

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and getting to know James T. Potter a bit better. If you haven't unwisely digested far too much rum, I'd love a review. If you have I'd suggest some asprin and a good nights sleep. Also, please excuse any grammatical errors, my beta's on vacation, so I had to attempt to edit this chapter myself (a hazardous exercise to be sure).


	3. In Which Lily Meets a Drug Lord

It's not mine. It's all J.K. Rowling's and 20th Century Fox.

Chapter 3: In Which Lily Meets a Drug Lord

or

In Which Lily Dances

Lily's previous memory:

"One hell of a morning turned into one bitch of a day, didn't it?" James asked and that was the last thing Lily heard before everything blurred into the dark world of unconsciousness.

**ooo…ooo**

Waking up the next morning was not an experience Lily ever wanted to repeat. She didn't really even wake up until they were walking through some sort of rundown village. She eyed the donkeys and llamas with blurry-eyed suspicion until she noticed the shabbily dressed men standing creepily in doorways, watching her and James walk past, and then she eyed them instead.

"Drug runners," James whispered under his breath, "Just try to look mean."

Look mean? Lily couldn't look threatening to anyone, except maybe a 5-year-old child and even then …

"Buonas díaz," James said, nodding to one of the men they passed. Lily walked stiffly, aware they were gathering a crowd of the creepy men behind them.

"Oh this is not good," James muttered, shaking his head.

"¡Pare a hombre!" One of the men behind them shouted and James stopped, not turning around. Lily froze by his side, unsure of what exactly was going on.

"Ok, here we go."

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

"Maybe one of us can make it out of here alive." They were going to die. Lily wasn't ready to die or to watch James use the wand he was pulling out of his belt to blow people up.

Thinking fast and grasping at threads for courage, she turned around and prayed that one of them spoke English, "Excuse me, but we're in need of a car. Can any of you lovely gentlemen help us?"

"There's only one car in this town and it's the bell makers'," a surly man, wearing only a vest said, his accent thick.

"Why thank you!" Lily exclaimed and James grabbed her arm, dragging her up the hill toward where the man had pointed.

"Bell maker my ass, we probably slept in one of his shipping planes last night," James muttered.

"He's a drug …"

"Shhh," James hissed, slapping a hand over her mouth, "For Gods sakes, not out loud." Lily nodded franticly and made a note to herself not to say anything about drugs ever again.

They reached the door and James said, "I'll handle this one, ok? You hold back." That sounded fine with Lily. Her wits were gone as it was, the last thing she needed was a bell maker/drug lord.

James knocked on the door and the little face window popped open. James said something in Spanish, but the man cut him off.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, great, you speak English," James said, "We heard you have a car and we'd like to borrow, rent, or buy it in order to get to a town."

"What do you think this is, a pig sty?"

"No ... no, it's a very …"

"Hit the road."

"But …" James broke off as the man leveled a wand at him through the window. Lily was surprised that a wizard would become a drug lord.

"Ok …" James said, putting his hands up and backing away. Lily followed suit until they were a few steps back and then they turned around … to see all of the creepy men from before with wands leveled at them. What was it with Colombia and wizards? They were going to die.

Lily backed away from the larger group and back towards the door as James flippantly said, "Ok, Lily Evans, write us out of this one."

"LILY EVANS? _The_ Lily Evans? The novelist?"

Lily turned around to see that the man in the door was the source of the words. She nodded hesitantly and the little window in the door slammed shut as the whole door opened. The man stepped out, revealing that he was dressed in a rather colorful Hawaiian shirt.

"I read your books! We love them!" He spouted off something in Spanish and his groupies lowered their wands and began waving and shouting things that actually sounded nice before walking off.

"I can't believe you're here. I'm so honored. Lily Evans! At my home! Come in, come in!" Lily had never been happier about her chosen profession. She would have to give Gloria a big hug for encouraging her when she got back home.

"I'm Juan, by the way. Lily Evans! I can't believe it. The greatest novelist. I've read all of your books!" Lily smiled and let him lead her into a very nice courtyard and into a sunroom. He was definitely a drug lord. Bell makers could not make enough money for a place like this.

"Is there anything I can get you? Anything at all?"

"What I really need, Juan, is a phone," Lily said.

"No phone. I hate phones." Lily sank into a chair thinking, drat it! Juan was pouring drinks while James looked about in a bemused fashion when Lily remembered the car.

"Can you use your car to get to the nearest phone?"

Juan looked up in surprise. "I have no car."

"But the men in the village said …"

"Oh, those jokers. They must have meant my little mule." A mule? You have got to be kidding, Lily screamed in her mind. Lily was about to take a sip of her drink when a boy of about 10 ran in panting in Spanish.

Juan turned toward her, "Apparently the police are here looking for you. I guess we'll have to do the speedy tour then, eh?" Lily's eyes widened as James scrambled their stuff together, tossing her purse over his shoulder and looking very silly as he raced after Juan, who was guiding Lily toward the other end of the house.

Lily stopped dead in her tracks when she saw 'little mule,' which should have more accurately been called a Ford all-terrain vehicle. They were saved! She found out how wrong that last thought was after experiencing Juan's driving, though. They might not die from the spells the police were hurling at the rear of the truck, but there was a huge likelihood of crashing into something.

Juan, of course, kept up a running commentary since apparently this was the whirlwind tour. "And that's my favorite pig. And see that fence, my mother was born there. Oh, see that tree third from the top of the ridge, my brother planted that tree! Look at this field; it's coming along. No?"

Lily kind of wished he'd pay a bit more attention to his driving. I mean a tour was all well and good if you weren't being chased by killer police, which they most certainly were.

"This guy who's following you, he is very persistent." Lily nodded in agreement, but the message was probably lost as she was bounced rather forcibly into James' lap, who easily secured her shoulders.

"See that river?" Juan shouted, taking a hand off of the wheel to point.

"You mean the one without the bridge?" James shouted back.

"What do you mean without the bridge?" Lily cried as she spotted the very bridgeless river for herself.

"Where the hell are you going?" James cried, pulling out his wand.

"Don't worry, I do this all of time!" Juan shouted, "There's a magic buffer running along the entire river for 200 miles, so we'll get through the Muggle way." Lily was pretty sure the Muggle way should have been a bridge.

Juan pointed some sort of remote control at the river and Lily's mouth dropped in surprise (and then was promptly snapped shut as the road bumped her up) as a ramp rose up at an angle. While Lily considered a ramp to be better than nothing she still had the sinking feeling this was going to involve a very unpleasant experience. Her fears were confirmed as the little mule became airborne over the river and landed with a resounding and bone-jarring roar on the other side. Juan turned the remote control over his shoulder and raised the ramp up straight, causing the police car to crash through and tumble into the river.

"Ha ha!" James hooted, "Well done, mate, we've lost them!" Boys, Lily thought, shaking her head and wondering if collapsing would be too dramatic.

A short while later, the little mule was parked in a field as Juan and Lily gathered flowers (mainly to calm Lily's nerves) and James started on one of Lily's novels that Juan had loaned him. It was _very_ calming after that car ride. While they picked Juan explained that the magical barrier had been erected when Colombia was still a colony and used to mark where the outer lands began. Now, of course, the outer lands were part of Colombia. It was very interesting, and kept Juan from begging to be in her next book.

Sadly it was soon time to go.

Juan was heading back toward the little mule when James caught her arm. "You see that," he said, nodding toward a pitchfork shaped tree. She obviously did, _honestly_. "That's on the map, 'the devil's fork.'"

"So?" Lily snapped. She didn't care what was on the map. She just cared about using the map to rescue Marly.

"I'm just saying," James said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"Well stop, I don't want to hear," Lily said, although in a way she was curious. And she also couldn't help but wonder if he was right, if having el Corazon, whatever it was would help her save Marlene.

After a much more subdued car ride, Juan dropped them off in a town with a bus station; the bus conveniently enough went to Cartagena and left every morning. The town also had a phone. Lily thanked Juan profusely before hightailing it to the phone and shakily dialing the number Marlene had given her.

"Hello?" A deep voice said on the other end of the line.

"Hello, this is Lily Evans. I just wanted to call you and tell you've I've had a bit of trouble getting to Cartagena, but I am coming and I'm bringing the map."

"That's good, very good for your friend."

"I want to talk to her," Lily demanded.

"Be my guest." There was the sound of rustling and then Marlene's voice came on the line.

"Lily?" She asked, sounding shaken.

"Marly, love, it's me! Are you alright? They haven't hurt you, have they?"

"No, no, I'm fine, just scared."

"Oh, me too, Marly, me too, but it'll be alright, you'll see."

"Thank you, Lily. I can't tell you how glad I am you're here." Lily started as a crash sounded.

"Satisfied, Ms. Evans?" Lily wanted to scream 'NO', but restrained herself.

"I'll call you when I get to Cartagena," she said and hung up. Merlin, she was in over her head.

She looked around and spotted James at the front desk of the rather seedy looking town motel and headed in his direction. She stepped over to him and he turned smiling at her.

"So …" she trailed off, unable to think of anything to say.

"Look, I've got a room, the last one actually. Why don't you go and get yourself cleaned up, while I go buy us some new rags." Lily was feeling rather filthy and a shower would be amazing, but she didn't want to take over James' room.

"I guess …"

"Great." He tossed her a room key. "Room 7."

"Hey, that's my lucky number," she said with a grin and as she walked off she thought she heard him say it was his lucky number too.

After a glorious shower, Lily wrapped a towel tight around herself and peered into the room, hoping James had come back with the promised clothes, or 'rags' as he'd put it. Seeing a pile on the bed she walked over and a smile crept onto her face as she saw it was actually a fairly respectable set of clothing. Scooping it up she cloistered herself back in the bathroom and tried everything on. Surprisingly, it all fit. The skirt was a bit odd, rising on one side and showing a little more leg than she usually did, but it was comfortable and with the belt it looked pretty darn good.

Lily was quite positive she hadn't looked this good in ages, though perhaps it had something to do with leaving her hair down. She ought to try that more often; it did look nicer than when it was all pinned up. Grabbing her purse and going down stairs, Lily headed out onto the town square where a party of sorts was starting. It was bright and colorful and would probably look even better after the last of the sun's rays left the sky.

In the twilight she nearly missed the clean and shaven James, but he came up to her smiling and full of compliments on her outfit and she started wondering if she'd ever gotten over that 4th year crush. They sat down to eat at an outdoor café on the square and Lily enjoyed the food while she watched the couples swirling out on the dance floor in the center of the square.

She caught James looking at her a few times, but brushed it off. Sure she wanted him to be attracted to her, but there was no way it would happen. James reached out and put his hand on hers, causing her to jump and knock her fork to the ground. She bent down to get it, only to be beaten by his fast reflexes. He smirked at her and offered her the fork.

"My lady," he whispered, letting the smirk slip into a smile that sent shivers down Lily's spine. Lily felt herself blushing and James' smile grew. She was such a goner.

"Would you care to dance?" He asked, standing up and bowing.

"Oh, I couldn't," Lily said, since she really couldn't. Dancing just wasn't her forte, and this was Latin music to boot. James grabbed her hands anyway and pulled her out onto the dance floor.

"It's not too hard. Just follow me," he whispered in her ear, drawing her close amid the press of other couples. Lily wondered if he was trying to make her crazy because he was certainly succeeding. James put his hands up and she hesitantly laid hers against his as she focused on watching his feet to try and figure out what in the world he was doing. She was doing a rudimentary sort of shuffle and had even managed a few glances up at James when he apparently decided it was time to move on to even more heart palpitating things, namely spins.

He spun her out and Lily nearly flew into a nearby couple. This was not going to turn out well. He just grinned and pulled her back to him and started the shuffle thing again. This time Lily fully appreciated the shuffle since it was not spinning and actually got into the rhythm. So much so that James apparently felt confident enough in her ability to put his hands on her waist and pull her closer. It was very close, Lily decided, perhaps too close.

Was it just her, or was it getting harder to breathe? James was staring at her and when she caught his eyes she felt like her entire body was just melting. How could any single person be so intense? Without realizing it she let James spin her out and then back into his arms. It was only when she returned to his gaze that she realized she'd been gone at all and done the whole spin without mishap.

He reached a hand up and stroked her cheek. She looked away, wondering if perhaps she'd been wrong about never having a chance with him. She gasped as he bent her back romantically in time with the end of the song. There were sparklers going off somewhere behind him and beyond that was the night sky, but all Lily saw was James. He pulled her back out of the dip and close to his chest.

"Lily," he whispered softly, almost as if he wanted permission to kiss her. Which she most certainly was willing to give, she wasn't brain dead, thank you very much. In fact, perhaps she should just make it clear that anytime he wanted to kiss her he could just go right on ahead and do it.

She whispered back, "James," and he pressed his lips to hers.

Right there in the middle of some Gods forsaken town square, in Gods forsaken Colombia, with crazy killers after her and she was experiencing perfection. Perfectly perfect perfection. James pulled back from the kiss gently and smiled softly at her, looking content. She smiled back feeling pleased she could put that look on his face, after all, if she remembered the gossip correctly James had never been content with anyone but his mates. He pulled her off the dance floor and back to their table, where they sat just talking, getting to know each other better in the midst of a crowd.

As Lily began to yawn, James offered up his room to her in an out of character gentlemanly way. Lily was flat against accepting, except that if she didn't, she'd have to sleep on the street; so she told him quite emphatically she'd take the floor.

James laughed as Lily blushed when he offered to share the bed with her and sent her a rather lecherous leer. Lily shook her head wordlessly and James simply stood and offered her his hand. Something about James' manor left her feeling confident, though, that there would be no 'funny business' if she didn't want it (and if she did there would be plenty of it), so she took his hand and followed him up the stairs to his room.

James let Lily use the bathroom first to scrub up and when she emerged she found he'd set up a blanket and pillow on the floor for her.

"Thanks," she said as he put a hand on her waist and pulling her closer and gave her a chaste smack on the lips before heading into the bathroom himself. Lily grinned to herself, wondering how exactly she'd ended up here, feeling happier than she had in her entire life. Perhaps that said something rather sad about her life up until this point, Lily mused.

As soon as her head hit the pillow, Lily was asleep.

**ooo…ooo**

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this chapter. It did deviate from the movie a bit, due to Lily not being an easy wench and whatnot, but hopefully it wasn't too disappointing. If you have some free time (seeing as it's summer and all), I'd love a review.


	4. In Which Lily Finds el Corazon

It's not mine. It's all J.K. Rowling's and 20th Century Fox.

Chapter 4: In Which Lily Finds el Corazon

or

In Which Lily Learns the Hazards of Driving Blind

Lily last night:

As soon as her head hit the pillow Lily was asleep.

**ooo…ooo**

She woke up feeling warm and thinking the floor was remarkably soft; then she realized she wasn't on the floor but in the bed. Bolting up, Lily's eyes caught the sight of James, fast asleep on the floor where she should have been. That man, she thought, desperately trying not to smile fondly at his shirtless form.

He groaned and rolled over, his eyes flickering open and meeting hers. He smiled sheepishly at her and Lily startled herself by rolling her eyes and patting the space next to her on the bed, inviting him up. James practically tripped over the comforter as he tried to move too fast. He ended up sprawled next to her and she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

"Wasn't I supposed to be on the floor?" She asked.

He eyed her skeptically. "What kind of man do you think I am? If you're going to court a girl, you damn well have to do it right! Letting her sleep on the floor will definitely not help your case, take it from someone who knows."

Lily laughed, "You are so very noble." He smirked and leaned in for a kiss, she ducked out of his way.

"I was thinking, James," she said quietly, and James stopped his attempts at getting a kiss out of her, "Maybe you were right about el Corazon being what will help Marlene. I … I think we should go find it. We found the first landmark, so it wouldn't be too hard."

"No, it wouldn't," James agreed, "But you didn't want to …"

"No, it's the right thing to do," Lily said, cutting him off.

She'd thought it through and tried playing it out with the map and with the stone and figured out real quick, which would make the best impression and get Marlene safely back with her to England. There was also the problem of what exactly this 'el Corazon' was. What if it was a weapon and whoever these kidnappers were used it against innocent people? Lily could still give them the map and not tell them about el Corazon. You couldn't let the world go to hell if there was a way to stop it. Everyone knew that.

"Then that's what we'll do," James said, tracing her jaw with a calloused finger.

He smiled almost impishly at her and said, "I went out last night after you were asleep."

"Oh?" Lily said, stifling a yawn.

"Hmm … well, I ran into these rather shady traveling thieves who tried to rob me blind,"

"Really ... "

"You bet, and in order to convince them not to, I had to buy something from them, so I got you this." James reached over to the nightstand and pulled up a golden necklace with a heart hanging off of it. "I doubt it's real gold, but it looks nice and it is appropriate."

"Yes, el Corazon," Lily said, accepting it from him and thinking about how it was doubly appropriate since her heart was on the line. She didn't know what to make of the gift, though. James' story was obviously fabricated, so he must have gone out and bought it. Or perhaps it was an impulse buy or he was trying to impress her for some reason. Or perhaps, just perhaps, he actually liked her. But if that was the case, why didn't he simply tell her so.

James helped her fasten it around her neck and gave her an amazing kiss. He was in the process of deepening it when the sound of what had to be at least five cars pulling into the square split the morning calm. James pulled back and exchanged a glance with Lily.

Twenty seconds later they were climbing out of the window and inching around the building on a narrow ledge to the water drain, so they could climb down without the police, who were currently occupying the town square, seeing them. James went first, which was quite lucky, seeing as Lily proved her clumsiness by falling straight into his arms. She'd never liked drainpipes anyway.

James hopped into an empty car parked right by the road and chucked his rucksack in the back. He pulled out his wand and prodded under the steering wheel.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked.

"Hotwiring this thing."

"Why not use the key?" Lily said, turning it for him and hearing the engine turn over. James looked at her sheepishly before gunning the engine and getting them the hell out of there.

They reached the devil's pitchfork in half an hour and then turned east until they came to a roadside shrine. A few turns later, they hit a dead end.

"I don't get it," Lily said, frustrated, as she angrily got out of the car.

"Landmarks change, get washed away. There's nothing you can do about it," James said, getting out too.

"There's got to be another clue."

"Lily, we still have the map; don't worry too much."

"Do you hear that?" Lily asked, meaning the faint roaring that came from somewhere in front of them.

"It sounds like a waterfall."

"Exactly! Check this out," Lily said eagerly, folding the map so that the drawing formed a waterfall in the center enclosed within a heart made of the roads.

"You are amazing Lily Evans, amazing!" James said. She wasn't really, she just happened to be a visual person and noticed little tricks like that. In fact, she had spent a good portion of 5th year making her own versions of this sort of thing during History of Magic.

They both piled back into the car and a few minutes later arrived in front of the waterfall. Lily followed James into the cave near the base of the waterfall, which had been marked with an 'X' on the map.

"Lumos," he said, lighting the cave and the map. "So this says we're looking for 'mothers milk.'"

"What's that mean?"

James shrugged and they continued walking until they came to small cavern with a pool, with water white as milk, in the middle. "Mummy, I'm home," James smirked. Lily laughed and she and James set to scooping the silt out of the pool.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Lily laughed.

"What?" James asked.

"Digging for treasure … with you."

James paused and looked oddly at ease after hearing such a mushy sentiment, so Lily plowed onwards.

"You're the best time I've ever had," she said, honesty filling her eyes.

James reached a muddy hand out and stopped right before touching her face and said, "I've never been anyone's best time before." Lily concluded that this was a moment she wanted to remember forever and tried to burn it into her mind, from the muddy water around her hands, to James' soul filled eyes that had her drowning, to his gentle smile, and contented words.

Then her fingers brushed something hard. Her eyes widened.

"I think I found something," she whispered in excitement, ruining the moment in favor of a new one. James' hands joined hers under the water and with a squelch he pulled out a statue.

"Is it a million dollar statue?" Lily asked skeptically as James turned it over and revealed a run of the mill garden gnome.

"Someone has a real sick sense of humor," James said, clearly disgusted.

"Wait, what if the treasure's inside the statue? In my first book, Treasures of Lust, I hid the treasure inside a statue." James eyed her for a moment (probably about the title of her book), then eyed the statue, and then smashed it none too carefully into the floor.

The front part shattered, revealing a blood red stone.

Lily froze, thinking in absolute horror; _this cannot be what I think it is_. But is was. James pulled the stone out and flipped it in his hand, his eyes wide in recognition too.

This was a philosopher's stone, the only one in existence. Lily wondered hazily why Nicholas Flamel couldn't keep a better watch on such dangerous things before letting herself contemplate the sorts of damage this stone could do in the hands of You Know Who or the crazy police who were chasing her.

"Merlin, we're in a lot of trouble," James said, shaking his head.

"Understatement of the year, asshole," said a surly voice from behind them. Lily whipped around to see a short figure in Death Eater garb, pointing his wand at them. Lily raised her hands instinctively, feeling dread fill her.

"Is there anybody who isn't following you?" James asked wryly, before raising his hands as well.

"Hand over the stone, buddy," the Death Eater said, holding out a bag. James slipped the stone into it.

"Now get up and lead the way out of the cave," the Death Eater said, emphasizing his words with a menacing wave of his wand. Lily stumbled through after James, not at all enjoying having a killer behind her whose wand kept poking her.

Finally they were back out in the blistering sunlight and they made their way back over to the car.

"How did you find us?" James asked, conversationally.

"That car," the man said, gesturing at the white rust bucket Lily and James had stolen, "Is mine. I was sleeping in the back under the blanket when you drove off." Now Lily felt stupid and very creeped out. She was never going to get into a car again without checking the backseat, never.

"Get into the car, Ms. Evans, you'll be my chauffer. We'll see how Mr. Potter likes being abandoned." James was eyeing the Death Eater murderously and Lily got the feeling that it wasn't because he was worried about being abandoned since he was very adept at surviving on his own. James opened the driver's side door for Lily and she slid in.

"You're a real sick son of a bitch," James practically growled at the Death Eater.

"Is that so? Well, at least I'm an honest son of a bitch, eh? I'm stealing this stone, no confusion there; I'm not trying to romance it out from under her."

James looked on the verge of diving at the Death Eater and getting himself terribly injured so Lily broke in, "It was my idea to go after the stone, not James'."

"He made you think you needed it, silly twit. That's what all good con artists do," the Death Eater drawled at her in what was almost a pitying tone, clearly meant to emphasize her stupidity.

That's not true, Lily thought. It wasn't; it couldn't be. James had encouraged her to go after the stone once, but he'd never pressured her about it and she'd had other reasons besides bargaining for Marly's life to go after it. Very good reasons apparently because the philosopher's stone in the hands of You Know Who could do _terrible_ things.

"Holy SHIT!" The Death Eater shouted, staring horrified over James' shoulder.

Lily whipped around in the driver's seat and saw at least seven police cars racing in their direction. Holy shit, indeed. Lily had barely turned back around in the driver's seat before James was sliding into the seat next to her.

"After the stone!" He yelled, pointing in the direction the Death Eater had run, "We have to get him before he apparates!"

"He would have already if he could," Lily shouted back. Her bet was that the police had anti-apparition wards up. James leaned out of the car door and when they were about even with the Death Eater, jumped straight out on top of him. Lily hadn't been expecting this, so she slammed on the breaks. James was already running back toward the car with the bag containing the stone in his hand when she managed to stop.

"Go, go!" He yelled, waving frantically. Lily gunned the engine and he dove through the open door as the car began to pick up speed.

"I have no idea where I'm going!" Lily screeched as she ran over a bush and wondered how far off death was at this rate, especially with the police gaining all the time.

"I'd try right!" James bellowed over the increasingly loud and unidentified roaring noise.

Lily was about to start veering right when in one heart-stopping moment the car launched into the air off of a slight embankment and landed in a disturbingly swollen river. As they impacted, Lily's head knocked viciously into the steering wheel, leaving a rather painful throbbing bruise that would undoubtedly develop into a full on headache given a few minutes. Currently Lily had other things to be worrying about, mainly the fact she was trying to steer a car through a river.

"Why are you still steering?" James asked, sounding much calmer than she felt, "We're not going anywhere the water doesn't want us to."

This didn't do much to calm Lily's nerves, so she switched on the windshield wipers, which were quite incompetent, and settled for trying to see what was coming up through all of the spray. What she saw was not comforting, but then again, when are waterfalls ever comforting when you're floating toward them?

She instinctively reached out and grabbed James' arm.

"Shit," he swore, "We're going to have to jump."

He wrapped his arms around her and as the car went over the falls, dragged her out of his door. They were going to die this time, Lily was quite sure. As they hit the water, Lily felt James dragged away from her. She tried to hold on, but the force of the currents and plunging water dragged her away. The water was pressing down on her from all sides and she desperately needed air. She couldn't even keep track of which way was up in this murky water. Suddenly a swell hit her and forced her in a direction that she later figured out was up.

As she tried to keep from running into a rock, her head broke the surface and she took a shuddering breath of air. She was near to a bank, Lily recognized with joy and, uncaring of which bank it was, she struggled toward it, fumbling her wand out of her purse as the water threatened to pull her in again and casting a propelling charm on herself. As she dragged herself onto a vaguely flat rock at the river's edge, feeling immensely glad she was still alive, she realized she didn't know where James was.

She immediately began searching the water for a sign of him, ready to throw a floating charm at him if she needed to. Then she spotted him … on the other bank.

He was on the other side! The thought seemed strange and foreign to her and she began to wonder if the Death Eater hadn't been right.

"James Potter!" She yelled, attracting his attention from where he was emptying his stomach of water, "You did this on purpose!" She was amazingly upset for someone who usually just went the passive aggressive route.

James looked confused, even from a distance, so she decided to explain further. "You're on the other side of the river … with the STONE!"

"What the hell are you talking about? We just went over a bloody waterfall!" He yelled back, gesturing comically at the waterfall, like she'd forgotten about it or something.

"What about my friend!" Lily screeched, feeling torn between killing James and crying.

"You've got the map!" James yelled, "Just don't tell them about the stone!"

He was leaving her now that he had the stone. Lily couldn't believe it. She'd trusted him. She'd trusted that sorry, worthless pile of flesh.

"You're a pathetic excuse of a wizard, Potter! I can't believe I even thought you'd stick around after we found el Corazon!"

James looked offended and yelled back. "What hotel will you be at in Cartagena?"

"Hotel Cartagena!" Lily shouted, going for sarcasm since he was an idiot and didn't really care.

"Just go straight towards the sunset and you should get to Cartagena just fine! And I'll be there waiting for you!"

"Likely story, Potter!" Lily shouted back. She would have continued except the rock next to hers choose that moment to explode, probably because it'd just been hit by a curse thrown by the police, who were now standing at the top of the waterfall on James' side of the river.

"I'll see you there, Lily!" James shouted as he dashed into the brush trying to get out of the way of the curses.

Lily watched him go in spite of the curses, knowing that it would probably be the last time she'd see him.

**ooo…ooo**

Lily stumbled into Cartagena tired, dirty, footsore, emotionally drawn, and, in general, ready to collapse. She made it to the Hotel Cartagena, got herself a room, somehow staggered up to it, and crashed on the bed.

She let herself lie there for nearly 15 minutes, before she levered herself out of bed and shakily reached for the telephone. She dialed the number Marlene had given her and waited with bated breath for her call to be answered.

"Hello?" The same deep voice from before answered.

"It's Lily Evans, I just wanted to let you know I've made it to the Hotel Cartagena."

"Very good, Ms. Evans. Now for the next step. You will leave your hotel at nightfall and go to the docks directly next to it. From there you will take a water taxi to the fort across the bay. Be sure to bring the map, Ms. Evans. We wouldn't want anymore mix-ups."

"I'll be there," Lily said, "Can I speak to Marlene, now?"

"Not until I have the map, Ms. Evans." The dial tone sounded, and Lily slowly lowered the phone back into its cradle.

She fruitlessly wished James were here so she wouldn't have to go face these people alone. She assumed that the people holding Marlene hostage were Death Eaters and that the man who'd accosted them in the cave had been working with them, although she wasn't sure. She didn't want to contemplate what she'd do if it was another party altogether that was after the stone.

She was still confused about the police, though. The police, and that man who'd told her to get on the wrong bus, were an enigma. It was obvious why they'd want the stone, immortal life and gold and whatnot, but how had they found out about it? As a matter of fact, how had the stone ended up in Colombia anyway? And after that, how had Eduardo McKinnon, a rather unobtrusive businessman and part-time political worker, ended up with it? Or perhaps he'd only been given the map to it? But then who had made the map? And why had Eduardo chosen to send it to her? Lily didn't fancy herself as anyone's first choice of philosopher stone rescuer. Lily wondered if she'd ever find the answers to these questions.

Unable to keep herself occupied anymore, she snatched up the phone and dialed the front desk. "Excuse me, has James T. Potter checked in."

She was answered with a pause and then a quick, "No, seniorita."

"Thank you," Lily whispered before setting the phone back again.

Well, she wouldn't let it get her down. He was a jerk. After she got Marlene back to England, they could buy some chocolate and sit around bashing him. That would make her feel better.

Lily splashed some water on her face and then headed downstairs into the twilight.

She stepped off of the water taxi onto the cobblestone landing of the fort and felt extremely uneasy. This was a very disturbing place to come for such a transaction, with its thick walls and flickering gas lamplight. Lily ducked through the entrance to the tunnels that comprised the fort and shivered at the sudden drop in temperature compared to the steamy tropical air outside.

She'd walked down a few halls when a voice said, "Stop, Ms. Evans."

She stopped. She didn't have a death wish, after all.

"Do you have the map?"

It was very odd to hear a disembodied voice like that, Lily decided.

"Yes," Lily said, as she pulled it out of her trusty purse. It was admittedly a tad damper than at the beginning, but it was still legible. She wouldn't have been surprised if someone, perhaps Eduardo, had put an impermeable charm on the ink.

"Good."

"Let me see Marlene," Lily responded.

Marlene appeared from around a corner, being held up by an arm clothed in black. A Death Eater stepped out from behind Marlene as the Death Eater holding her also fully appeared to go with his arm. They walked toward Lily, bringing Marlene with them.

"Let me see it," the first Death Eater said, holding out his hand. Lily was wary to let the map go, but did.

"If this isn't authentic …" the Death Eater said, performing a verifying charm on the map. The map glowed briefly blue, indicating it was authentic.

"Well, well. Very good. You're free to go Ms. Evans and take your friend with you."

The Death Eater, who had been stoically holding Marlene, shoved her forward, sending her stumbling into Lily. Lily grabbed Marlene and turned down the corridor to beat a hasty retreat, in case other uncomfortable questions came up.

Lily had gotten maybe three steps before the ground in front of her split from the impact of a curse.

**ooo…ooo**

Thank you for reading. I hope this chapter lives up to expectations. There's only one more chapter left to this little fic, so review while you can (unless you're feeling as lazy as I am, and then don't because I understand completely).


	5. In Which Lily Deals with Crocodiles

It's not mine. It's all J.K. Rowling's and 20th Century Fox.

Chapter 5: In Which Lily Deals with Crocodiles

or

In Which Lily Rescues Marlene

Lily's last predicament:

Lily had gotten maybe three steps before the ground in front of her split from the impact of a curse.

**ooo…ooo**

Marlene screamed and Lily shoved Marly behind her, shielding her in case more curses were forthcoming. Of course, the confusing thing was, they weren't coming from the Death Eaters.

Lily froze as James appeared from the other hallway, looking very stiff and very unhappy.

"We missed you at the hotel," he said dryly.

Lily had only a second to wonder who 'we' was before 15 or so police officers, including the one from the bus, stepped around the wall with their wands drawn. Marly let out a pitiful whimper and Lily decided that as soon as they got back from England, she would buy them both some self-defense lessons, preferably with a really hot Auror.

"You let them follow you, you brainless broad," the Death Eater said in annoyance.

The police also shoved in a man with the hood of his Death Eater's outfit torn off, probably the man from the cave Lily figured. He looked vaguely familiar, but Lily couldn't quite place the face.

The man from the bus stepped around Lily and Marly to the Death Eater with the map. He tore it from the Death Eater's hands and lit if on fire with a touch of his wand.

"That map is useless," he announced, "They've already taken the philosopher's stone." Marly gasped and Lily resisted the urge to bang her head into her hand and lament the follies of life.

"Where is it?" The man from the bus hissed, making it clear he was in charge of the assembled police.

"I don't know," Lily said in all honesty since she didn't know where it was now. She knew who'd last had it to be sure, but that wasn't too important.

"Tell me where it is!"

"I don't know! We dug, but we didn't find anything, ok?" It was a slight lie, but one told with the best of intentions, so Lily figured it was alright.

"You should think long and hard before lying to me," the man threatened.

Lily didn't respond, mainly because she didn't want to sound cowardly or accidentally give something away.

"Bring her outside," the man said, gesturing at some of the police. They grabbed her arms and dragged her none too gently out to the courtyard of the fort, which had a nice wildlife area that was conveniently enough filled with crocodiles.

"Have you heard that when crocodiles eat their prey, they shed tears, Ms. Evans?" Lily was about to respond with an emphatic no, when the man continued, "I'm sure you have. Now if your chance to see them."

Lily was about to ask what exactly he meant by that, when he grabbed her arm and used his wand to slice a bloody cut over the top of her wrist and hand. Lily gasped in pain as the burning and stinging sensation hit.

Her arm trembled as he yanked her forward and held her hand out over the crocodile pond. The trembling sent drops of blood into the water, allowing the crocodiles to detect it. A large, very menacing crocodile began to purposefully swim in her direction.

"Please ... " Lily whispered feeling pathetic and needy. If she lost her hand she couldn't write, and then what would she do?

In the background, she could hear James struggling and yelling, "No!" Marlene was also putting up a bit of resistance by stepping on her captor's toes with her very high heels. The Death Eaters didn't seem inclined to do anything except watch, probably looking for a chance to escape.

"Where is the stone, Ms. Evans?"

Lily muttered, "I don't know."

"Tell me and I'll allow you and your friends to go."

Lily would have been tempted had she actually known where the stone was, except for the fact that this man living forever made her want to empty her stomach right on his feet. She was having trouble imagining anything more vile except You Know Who living forever. Why is it, Lily wondered, that only the really annoying bastards want to live forever?

"Stop!" James yelled, "She doesn't know where it is!"

"I doubt that, Mr. Potter."

"She doesn't know because I have it." The man turned toward James and by doing so, moved Lily's hand back a bit from the pond, making it less of a direct target.

"Where is it then?" He asked.

"A … safe place," James answered. That was a terrible answer and Lily knew it. The man started to move Lily's hand back out over the pond.

"Look, I'll give it to you, just not here." The man looked back at James, and Lily wondered where exactly the offending stone was.

"Hurt him,' the man said, and Lily's eyes widened. The nearest policeman aimed a curse at a very sensitive part of any man's anatomy, but instead of causing James to double over in pain, the spell sort of ricocheted, like it'd been reflected and James merely did some under the breath cursing.

Everyone in the little courtyard was staring at James as he did a weird sort of leg twist, that looked wrong on many levels, and the philosopher's stone slid down his pants leg to balance on the top of his boot.

Lily desperately fought the urge to laugh unstably. That was a man for you. When in need of a safe place, the first place they look is their underwear. Although Lily supposed she really couldn't talk since she always put things in her bra for safekeeping. Still, if she were the policemen she wouldn't touch that stone without gloves and many disinfectants.

"Choke on it," James called as he used his foot to toss the stone high into the air where it hit a palm tree and then conveniently landed right in the had of the evil policeman who was still holding Lily's arm. The world was surely a vindictive place.

"Thank you," the man said in a very creepy voice, staring at the stone with wide eyes and failing to notice the crocodile that was eyeing his hand with unhidden delight. Lily was actually about to warn him in spite of the fact he was an enemy, mainly because blood made her slightly squeamish, when the crocodile took advantage of the man's obliviousness and bit off his hand at the wrist, swallowing it, stone and all.

Lily screamed, but it was mostly covered by the man's own scream. He only had a stump left at his wrist, a rather bloody and disgusting stump. That was justice in a way for what he'd been planning to do to Lily. In his pain, the man dropped his wand, and, not being one to let pain go untaken advantage of, Lily grabbed it. James had also used the distraction to get free and grab his wand from one of the policemen.

The Death Eaters were confusing matters as well since they had their other cronies shooting down curses from the ramparts. All in all, Lily decided the courtyard had turned into a rather unpleasant place to be. Lily grabbed Marlene, who was still staring at the man who was now trying to wrap his stump in his handkerchief, and dragged her over to one of the entrances leading inside.

Unsure of which way to go, Lily chose up, taking the first flight of stairs she saw. Marlene was following along like a zombie and Lily mentally added counseling to the list of what she would get Marlene when they go back to England. Lily grabbed one of the oil lanterns hanging off of the top of the staircase and continued on, eventually finding a door that opened onto a parapet. She decided it was time to gauge where they were by a look at the ground; she was rather hoping they'd gotten away from the courtyard.

Lily could still hear curses firing, but they were fainter than before. Lily looked through one of the crenellations and saw that the Death Eaters were apparating, except the one who'd accosted them in the cave; his wand was still in police custody. The police were questioning the man and she supposed as payback for leaving him, the captive Death Eater was listing off places they could have gone. Death Eaters were definitely a vindictive sort.

Lily moved over to a crenellation on the other side and was even more surprised to see James chasing a crocodile, presumably the one that had eaten the philosopher's stone. She was glad someone had possessed the foresight to do that. The last thing anyone needed was a crocodile that lived forever. That would be straight out of one of her worst nightmares.

Lily turned back to Marlene, who was still following her like a lost puppy and smiled gently. "It's going to be alright," she whispered and pulled Marlene into a hug.

Lily looked over Marlene's bent shoulder and saw the now one-handed man coming at them with a board riddled with rusty nails.

Lily shoved Marlene behind her and whipped out her wand yelling, "Protego!"

The man sneered. "I will kill you, Lily Evans. You have cost me the stone and my hand and for that you will die."

Lily decided now would be a good time to get help.

"James!" She shouted, hoping her voice would carry down to him.

The man took a swing at Marlene, who, even if she had her wand, would probably have been useless. The fellow hadn't even managed to hit her and she'd fainted dead away on the ground anyway, leaving Lily on her own.

Lily hit the man with a jelly legs curse, but he'd managed to leap at her before it took effect and he slammed her into the wall. Lily struggled to keep the rusty nails away from her face as she reached for her wand, which had rolled a few feet away after he'd hit her, with her foot. Lily glanced over her shoulder and through the crenellation to see James holding onto the crocodile by the tail as it was trying to slip into the water. Right now, though, Lily didn't care about the bloody immortal crocodile, she was going to die!

"James!" She screamed again. He looked up and immediately and she saw his eyes widen even over such a distance.

Lily wasn't able to keep looking since the man had pulled back and taken another swipe at her, grazing her arm. Lily screamed in pain and slumped down the wall as he tossed the board away and grabbed his wand from her pocket. Recovering, Lily grabbed her own wand and shot an impedimenta curse at the man, slowing him down and allowing Lily to move away from the wall and into the more open center of the parapet. As her curse began to wear off, and the man brandished his wand menacingly at her, Lily searched her mind for possibilities, coming up with none.

Suddenly the man was racing at her, clearly intending to ram her, but into what? Lily turned around and her heart leapt into her mouth; there, not three meters away, was pit of crocodiles covered only with a flimsy looking wood fence. Lily leapt to the side, drawing him away. As she moved, he hit her with a curse that made her feel nauseous and she staggered to her left. He dove at her again and this time Lily levitated the oil lamp that had been sitting on the ground nearby and banished it right at his head. The impact caused the lamp to break and ignite, setting the man on fire.

Lily had actually been planning on knocking him out with it, but she supposed fire worked too. The man screamed and, not looking where he was going, walked right on top of the crocodile pit. The wooden fence broke and he fell through, abruptly ending their duel.

Lily covered her ears as his screams echoed in the night and she nearly jumped out of her skin as warm arms circled her ... James' arms. He pulled her close and she clutched at his arms. He turned her around and looked her over, apparently checking for injury.

"Are you alright?"

Lily nodded.

"Thank Merlin," he whispered fervently, pulling her back to him again and pressing a kiss onto her temple.

"How did you get up here?" Lily asked.

"Had to go the Muggle way," James answered, "I climbed that bloody wall. Nearly killed me, too."

"The crocodile?" Lily asked, wondering if he'd let it go to come rescue her. Or, in more romantic terms, if he thought she was more important than the philosopher's stone.

"It got away, but I'll find it. That stone can't get into the wrong hands." He was right, of course.

He pulled back and looked her in the eye. "Alright, I want you to go to the British Embassy and tell them everything that has happened."

"What?" Lily interrupted.

"Who knows, they might even believe you," James continued without pause. He began heading back toward the wall he'd come up and Lily felt panic claw at her. Why wasn't he coming to the embassy too?

"You're leaving! You're leaving me?" Lily yelled after him, trying to voice her feeling of loss. Somehow now that he had come back for her once made letting him go again impossible. He stopped and then walked back toward her and ran a hand through her hair.

"You're going to be alright. You're going to be alright, Lily Evans. You always were."

He kissed her then, but it felt bittersweet to Lily. There weren't going to be any promises of meeting her this time. She kissed him back desperately silently begging him not to go, but he pulled back anyway and headed back to the wall that bordered the water.

"What about you, James T. Potter, will you be alright?" She asked quietly.

He didn't turn around, but he answered anyway, "Maybe. The jury's still out on that one."

With that he dove off of the wall. Lily raced over and watched as the ripples from his splash eventually spread into nothingness and only faint bubbles, a product of the bubblehead charm, marked his passage. Lily stayed there for a few minutes just staring at nothing, before envenerating Marly and getting them both to the embassy. Their story was most certainly not believed, even by the magical delegation, but they were put up for the night nonetheless and sent home via portkey the next morning.

Once back in her apartment Lily didn't even stop before heading back to her writing room.

**ooo…ooo**

"I must say Lily, I've never seen you write a book so quickly before and frankly, this one has to be my new favorite," Gloria said, as she looked at Lily over their usual table in the Leaky Cauldron.

Lily smiled sadly, "I was inspired."

"Yes, by the death trip to Colombia. I did warn you about going, you remember?"

"I know, Gloria, but I had to go, and Marlene's back now, so really it turned out for the best."

"I suppose. You know, the best part of your book by far is the ending."

"You think so?" Lily said mildly, not really wanting to dwell on the only part of her book that she'd had to fabricate entirely.

"It's incredibly romantic how he dives into the water, but then comes back and meets her at the portkey station; it's just so perfect."

"Yes," Lily agreed, "That was a good part."

"Now, of course, you realize you're a world class hopeless romantic."

"I like to think I'm a hopeful romantic," Lily interjected, thinking of how she scanned the papers everyday for any word of the philosopher's stone or of James.

Gloria smiled, "Well, I won't keep you. I know you have those self-defense lessons with Marlene to go to."

Lily nodded.

"I suppose your next book will be about ninjas in love?"

Lily laughed outright. "I think I'll stick to something a bit tamer, Gloria, but I'll keep it in mind for my twilight years, ok?"

Gloria laughed and shooed her out of the booth. "Don't you be late or Marlene and that gorgeous instructor of yours will have my head."

Lily dropped a few galleons on the table and headed out the door. True to her mental promises Lily had signed both herself and Marlene up for self-defense with the hottest Auror she could find, Sirius Black. It was hard not to think about James around him since they'd been best friends, but he really did know what he was doing and the large public class (comprised mostly of women) allowed her and Marlene some anonymity.

Lily walked through the door of the supposedly 'under construction' building that served as a public athletic center and into the training room. She ducked through the girl's locker room doors and met up with Marlene, who was already in her sweats. Lily changed into hers and they headed back out into the training space to stretch and warm up.

Black raced in right on the verge of being late, as always, but today he was grinning like he'd won the lottery. Of course, this was commented on by one of the ladies and Sirius refused to say what he was so happy about for the first half of the lesson, which was mainly based on different techniques for confusing an opponent: the confundus charm, spinning around, acting insane, etc.

What betrayed Sirius' secret was a group of uniformed Aurors walking through the door that connected the training room to the Auror level at the ministry. This wasn't unusual since other Aurors often used the other end of the training space, but the man who stood at the center of the smiling laughing group caught Lily's eye … it was James.

James, who was apparently back in England, back in an Auror uniform, and possibly (with extremely good luck) back in her life.

Sirius stopped in the midst of a demonstration to happily crow a 'hello' at James. Clearly James' return was the reason behind Sirius' happiness. Sirius told everyone to keep practicing acting insane while he went to talk to James.

Marlene was doing an excellent job of being insane, but Lily couldn't take her eyes off James. Should she go over to him? Would he even want to see her?

She maneuvered Marlene over closer to them, so she could hear what they were saying. They were talking about how glad they were James was back, they joked about how James had saved the world by returning the philosopher's stone to Nicholas Flamel, and Sirius pestered him a bit about some 'mysterious' woman he'd met.

All in all, very disheartening, Lily decided.

After a bit more chatting Sirius went back to teaching and the other Aurors left. Sirius started the class on practicing confundus charms and as Lily waited for Marlene's backfired confudus charm to wear off she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. A shiver ran down her spine and she knew who it was.

"James," she said, turning toward him. He smiled at her and she took that as a good thing and beamed back.

"Nice boots," she complimented, having noted their distinctly crocodile skin pattern from the other side of the room.

James smirked. "The poor old yellow-tailed guy. He developed a fatal case of indigestion and died right in my arms."

"I don't blame him," Lily said, "There's no other place I'd rather die."

She could not believe she'd just said that! She'd been writing romance novels for far too long if she was saying that sort of thing in real life. Perhaps she should take a break for a while and try her hand at … well, it wasn't her fault she had no other talents.

James took the sappy and disgusting comment in stride though, running a thumb over her cheek. "I couldn't stop thinking about you," he confessed, "I even read one of your books."

"Oh," Lily blushed, "Then you know how they all end."

"Yes, I do, Ms. Evans and I would be more than willing to oblige and kiss you, but only if you agree to go out to dinner with me tonight."

"I'd love to. Just one request: no snake."

"We'll do vegetarian," James said and with that he leaned in and kissed her very thoroughly in front of the whole defense class. With any luck, though, Lily figured, most of them were confounded at the time, although Sirius was certainly not and she had a feeling she'd be hearing a lot more about this in the near future. But putting that thought aside Lily focused on the man kissing her.

Cliché as it was, Lily Evans had gotten her happy ending and while she'd have preferred the romantic rendezvous at the portkey station she'd take what she could get, namely James.

**ooo…ooo**

Thank you VERY much for reading this fic! I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Reviews, as always, are appreciated, but, as usual, won't land you with your own reformed scoundrel to kiss (I only wish).


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